1. Field of Invention
This invention is directed to systems, methods and graphical user interfaces for an image capture device or an image forming device.
2. Description of Related Art
Scanners and other types of image capture devices as well as digital copiers and other image forming devices, have become ubiquitous office productivity tools for generating electronic images of physical original documents or generating physical copies of electronic images. Once an electronic image has been generated, either from scratch or from a physical original document, the electronic image data can be used in an infinite variety of ways to increase the productivity and the product quality of an office. Image capture devices include desktop scanners, other stand alone scanners, digital still cameras, digital video cameras, the scanning input portions of digital copiers, facsimile machines and other devices that are capable of generating electronic image data from an original document, and the like. These image capture devices can also include image databases that store previously captured electronic image data. Image forming devices may include digital copiers, laser printers, ink jet printers, color ink jet printers, and the like.
As the costs of these various image capture devices and image forming device have dropped and the output quality of the physical copies and the captured electronic image data has improved, these image capture devices and image forming devices have been provided with an ever increasing number of controllable features. Similarly, as users have become comfortable with capturing and using electronic image data obtained from original documents to create physical copies, the uses to which the electronic image data has been put, and thus the needed control over the quality and appearance of the electronic image data and the physical copies, have expanded greatly.
In response, standard interfaces between image capture devices, including those indicated above, and various application programs that use such captured electronic image data have been developed. Such standard interfaces allow standard compliant image capture devices and standard compliant applications to communicate easily. One exemplary embodiment of such a standard interface is the TWAIN™ interface. The TWAIN™ interface allows any TWAIN™ compliant application program to input and use electronic image data using any TWAIN™ compliant image capture device.
The TWAIN™-compliant component protocol facilitates communication between application programs and image capture devices, such as those indicated above. One such TWAIN™-compliant image capture device is the XEROX® DigiPath™ scanner.